I still have my Maxxum 5000, Maxxum 7000 (with program back and AA battery pack) stached away for museum duty BUT, the Phoenix/Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5, the Minolta first series Maxxum 35-70mm f4, the first series Maxxum 50mm f1.7 and the beercan (a crossed X model) 70-210mm f4 are all sitting there waiting for the right body to come along.

Currently I have a Pentax *istDL and a *istDS with a number of nice lenses BUT the Minolta kit contains some real gems.

Still waiting to see which direction SONY will go in, the latest teasers show an interesting future.

I still have my Maxxum 5000,Â* Maxxum 7000 (with program back and AA battery pack) stached away for museum duty BUT,Â* the Phoenix/Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5,Â* the Minolta first series Maxxum 35-70mm f4,Â* the first series Maxxum 50mm f1.7 and the beercan (a crossed X model) 70-210mm f4 are all sitting there waiting for the right body to come along.

Currently I have a Pentax *istDL and a *istDS with a number of nice lenses BUT the Minolta kit contains some real gems.

Still waiting to see which direction SONY will go in,Â* the latest teasers show an interesting future.

Ira

Hi Ira,
You've got quite a big of restraint not picking up the a100. Your lens collection is very good and the a100 would suit those lenses quite a bit. I found out through the dynax site that there are two more models coming out. One amateur (like a100) and one pro. Either way, I am going to the sony route because I have a couple of minolta lenses anyway.

I still have my Maxxum 5000, Maxxum 7000 (with program back and AA battery pack) stached away for museum duty BUT, the Phoenix/Cosina 19-35mm f3.5-4.5, the Minolta first series Maxxum 35-70mm f4, the first series Maxxum 50mm f1.7 and the beercan (a crossed X model) 70-210mm f4 are all sitting there waiting for the right body to come along.

Those are the only Minolta bodies I have and I wanted to take some shots at the front of the runway with one lens, some at the end of the runway with another, using a zoom on a third body (and I can't swap lenses that fast the way the models were moving). LOL

In hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with just a zoom. But, I figured the primes would be better for the lighting conditions.

Yes, Sony looks like they're going to take this market seriously. I just wish the bodies were coming out a bit sooner. We should see at least one of them on store shelves sometime this year according to what Sony was telling those attending the show.

My guess is that initial DSLR sales results have been encourging to them. For example, it looks like the Alpha 100 was the 5th best selling DSLR in the U.S. in January, according to the these statistics:

The last stats I saw for overall digital camera market share showed Sony in number 2 spot now behind Canon (with Kodak in third). But, it's going to take them a little while to get to where they want to be in the DSLR market (and more bodies would help). They've certainly got the distribution network in place already though.